Greencastle Moose Lodge robbed
GREENCASTLE -- The board of Greencastle Moose Lodge No. 1592 held an emergency meeting Wednesday night to discuss a burglary that occurred at the lodge Monday night.
Moose Lodge administrator Tim Spurlock estimated that somewhere between $15,000 and $17,000 had been taken from the lodge, which is located at 212 W. Franklin St.
"This is a shock to me," Spurlock said. "It hurts. We do things for the community, and this is what happens. We feel violated."
Spurlock and other lodge officials will be meeting today with representatives from their insurance company to determine how much of what was lost the lodge can recoup.
Lodge officials are working with officers from the Greencastle Police Department to try to piece together what happened. Spurlock said he and a few other lodge officers "coded out" of the lodge at 11:36 p.m. Monday, and the robbery was discovered by a maintenance man when he arrived at the lodge at 6:40 a.m. Tuesday.
"They cut the phone lines and my cable and alarm lines outside at the box," Spurlock said. "They pried in the back door -- the one that faces toward the old jail. They turned the breakers off and tore the security system pad off the wall. They destroyed the security cameras, kicked in six doors and ransacked drawers and cabinets.
"They tore the safe, which was bolted down, out of the floor," Spurlock continued. "The safe had bags with money for all the different committees -- euchre, darts and sports -- along with one that had the money we'd raised for a new air conditioning unit. I know there was at least $3,100 in that bag alone."
The thief -- or thieves -- also took the lodge's bingo box and cash register drawers, all of which contained small amounts of cash.
"I'm still trying to figure exact amounts going off the last month end reports I did," Spurlock said.
Also stolen was Spurlock's laptop computer, as well as the lodge's petty cash box.
"We had to draw money out of our savings account Tuesday so we had enough cash to open the doors and operate," Spurlock said. "There was literally not a dollar left on the premises."
Spurlock declined to speculate on whether or not the robbery may have been committed by a lodge member or employee.
"What I will say is that I feel it had to have been someone with knowledge of the layout and the business," he said. "They had to be affiliated somehow, and they had to have been professionals -- they didn't leave any fingerprints."
Spurlock said he is also relatively sure the robbery was committed by more than one person.
"The safe weighed between 1,200 and 1,500 pounds," he said.
The police investigation into the incident is ongoing.
"We have no suspects at this time," said GPD Chief Tom Sutherlin.
Spurlock is unsure how much the lodge was insured for, as the policy documents were, in accordance with Moose Lodge bylaws, secured in the safe that was stolen.
"I just can't believe this happened," Spurlock said. "We host proms. We do things to help kids. I feel like we just got slapped in the face."
Anyone with any information on the robbery is asked to call the Greencastle Police Department at 653-2925 and asked for Detective Mike Collins or Detective Randy Seipel.